Memoir: Hot War - Cold War

MEMOIR: HOT WAR - COLD WAR, Back-of-the-Lines Logistics by
Meyer Moldeven ([email protected])
JuLY 2006
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: We Learn From Each Other
Memoir: Parachute Rigger: World War Two: Hickam Air Force Base,
Hawaii. 1941-1946
Memoir: Fixing Mistakes in the Workplace, Santa Barbara, California
1979
Memoir: First-Line Supervisor Inspects the Work Unit, McClellan Air
Force Base, California 1968
Memoir: Parachute Acquisition: Procuring Parachutes to Meet U. S.
Air Force Urgent Needs for the Korean War. Wright-Patterson Air
Force Base, Ohio. 1950
Memoir: Logistics Planning, North Africa: Nouasseur Air Base,
Morocco. Contingency Planning for a Third World War. 1953-1956

Memoir: Outer Space Logistics
Memoir: Military-Civilian Teamwork in Suicide Prevention; McClellan
AFB, California, 1969 and afterwards
Memoir: Tips on Talking to the Hard-of Hearing;Â (Also Ref: Noise
and Military Service: Implications For Hearing Loss and Tinnitus -
2005)
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INTRODUCTION: WE LEARN FROM EACH OTHER
Lore adapts to altered circumstances and lifestyles, and to cultures and
environments other than the times and places where the 'lore' had its
roots. The familiar may be comfortable, but we also read and listen
for other perspectives that disclose events and experiences grown dim
over the decades, and in time, of generations past.Â
In memoirs and storytelling, a culture's traditions and values offer
opportunities to inject a sense of history, and visions of a future. In
doing so, they provide context to interactions among the family's
constituents and continuity to its culture and
community. Excessively repeated, they might appear as frayed
platitudes. Yet, throughout all civilizations a culture's traditions and
values retain their relevancy and often, their majesty.
Tradition passes history to a new generation on what happened to
family and community across time, and, to the extent possible, the
reasons. Elders' stories and lore convey facts and interpretations
about customs, events and personalities and how they became part of
the whole. Tradition supports the family's and the society's sense of
continuity.
Social and cultural awareness offers sanctuary to education, law
enforcement, science, sports, health care, religion, and more. Together,
they are primary forces that drive a civilization's evolution in concepts,
principles and methodologies that a society needs to make life livable

and enjoyable. Awareness includes what is wrong with the way things
are, as well as what is right.
Values are what it's all about: the bottom line. Values, however, are
a mixed bag, and passing them along through stories, lore and memoirs
is a matter of memory, selection, circumstances and
emphasis. Values might include stimulating self-esteem in others;
taking into account another's sensitivities; respecting life; repairing
Planet Earth; knowing the differences between pity, sympathy,
compassion, and empathy; striving to be honest and fair; and having
respect for institutions and laws but being willing to act within the law
to change those no longer suitable for the common good. Advocates
sometimes prefer to stress personal proclivities and biases in passing
along family and community values. Values provide substance to
awareness and tradition.
MEMOIR: PARACHUTE RIGGER: WORLD WAR TWO: HICKAM
AIR FORCE BASE, HAWAII 1941-1948
Several years ago I was one of several addressees on an email from
students at a middle school in a northeastern state. They wrote that
they were working on a class project about American involvement in
World War II and invited memoirs from older Americans who had
lived through those times. They wanted to learn directly from those
who had served in the nation's wartime Armed Forces and Merchant
Marine, as well as from civilians on the home front who had produced,
serviced, and transported weapons and supplies from where they were
made to where they were used. The students wanted to hear from
people who cared for the wounded and helped in other ways.
The teacher added a note that memoirs received had generated
questions among the students. The result was a Q&A exchange
conducted in follow-up email communications. At the project's
conclusion, the students' teacher reported to the electronic community
that the project had been a great success: the students learned history
from those who had lived it. The storytellers, many of whom were long
retired, had an audience for reminiscences that might not otherwise
have surfaced. Together with the students, they built a bridge from the

1940s to the 1990s and, in doing